Author: siia

Renewals are a huge part of our industry. But where publishers continue to use digital more and more for delivery of their publications—often without print—they are finding that regular mail still may bring more success for subscriber renewals. Certainly, after reading our Listserv discussion last week, talking with a few people this morning and seeing results of a test case in Denmark, I believe mail should certainly remain part of the mix.

"My renewal series are both digital and paper, but the paper still brings in the lion's share of renewals—even among those with digital [his emphasis] subscriptions," wrote Sean Oberle, publisher of Product Safety Letter, on the SIPA Listserv. "I haven't measured it, but 80%-90% seems about right. The paper success would have to drop a lot for me to consider getting rid of it."

Webinar consultant Leslie Davidson of Davidson Direct agreed. "…similar to your digital renewals that respond most to a paper notice, I've found that to be true with digital FFTs as well. I'll send digital issues with a cover email and a link to subscribe, but I'll also send a paper notice at some point (if I have the physical address), and most of the subscriptions come in through that."

Robert Lerose (pictured here) has been a successful copywriter in the SIPA community and beyond for many years now. "One of the mistakes publishers make is they don't mail enough efforts," he said. "It's like money in the bank. Because so many people send so much electronically, in-boxes get cluttered. The people who send things through the mail get the recipients' attention easier. A piece of mail can still be memorable."

Lerose pointed out that with a renewal series through the mail, you get "more than one opportunity to get them to respond, so you can use a variety of hooks. Each effort needs to be distinguished." He said the differences in writing for mail vs. email are three-fold:
1) he writes a bit shorter for email;
2) he adds at least three links in the email, including one at the top; and
3) he formats emails with a sans-serif typeface and keeps each line between 50-62 characters because of the smaller screen sizes on mobile.

I would also add that excessive emails have a way of getting people mad that I don't think excessive mail does. These days, we're pretty used to the junk mail we get. But, for example, when you're part of an online community where people get everybody's "I'm on vacation" emails, the emotions can run high.

I also walked down the hall this morning to talk to Eric Fredell, SIIA's vice president of membership. SIIA actually emails the majority of its renewals—with SIPA being one of the division exceptions that adds print to that. "We went from 450 to 800 members," Fredell said referring to the mergers with SIPA and ABM. "So doing renewals on a tailored, one-off basis gets much harder. Electronic mostly prevails."

SIIA does pretty well on renewals, Fredell said. He spoke about trying to make sure members stay involved throughout the year with some aspect of their membership, be it webinars, conferences, INFO Locals, Listservs, etc. "There certainly are clues to non-engagement," he said, "where you say, 'Let me try another channel to reach them.'" To that end, today he is faxing and mailing renewal letters to certain members of a division who haven't responded to the emails.

He also advised to take notice of the name at the top of your renewal emails. That person may be sending a lot of other emails and getting tuned out. "Take our education division; [an assistant] may be sending out emails on many subjects, including renewals," Fredell said. "Well, we also have Karen Billings who heads the division and is well-known in the industry, so when an email comes from her, members are more likely to pay attention. You have to know how to best use your resources."

Fredell made one other cautionary point: If you are digital-only, your mailing lists may not be as good. So make sure you maintain the lists, and someone knows what to do with the letters that come back.

And then there's the test in Denmark. A group of about 3,000 customers was selected and observed through a two-month cycle. The evidence showed that new customers pay the required amount much later if they receive their invoices by email, compared to physical mail. They found that 59% of customers receiving the invoice via email had to be sent a reminder, while only 29% of customers receiving the invoice via mail required a follow-up message.

"Nothing beats a 'renew-now-to-get-this-super-amazing-free-premium' in their hand to spark that renewal!" wrote Stephanie Williford, CEO of EB Medicine, on the Listserv. "One of the speakers at a recent SIPA conference mentioned that their data showed that people tend to renew the same way they originally subscribed (i.e., if you subscribed via a direct mail offer, you're more likely to renew via a direct mail offer), so one could infer that someone who subscribed to a digital-only publication online would most likely renew online—but sending physical notices in addition to email notices has made a big difference for us."

"I think it's wise to have *something* that you send in the mail, even for a 'completely' digital publication," said Greg Krehbiel, director of marketing operations for Kiplinger. "There's nothing like having an object in your hand. Like a renewal letter."

Lindsay Konzak, editor of Modern Distribution Management, agreed. "…we always send a hard copy invoice and letter to all of our subs, whether they consume our newsletter online or in print."

Like anything else, there are exceptions, and publishers who have never had print products may be different. Rob Rogers, editorial director of Diversified Communications, wrote, "We started 12 years ago digitally—never had a print newsletter…Our renewals have always been pretty good, especially after the first one. We've done very little hard copy mailing for either new memberships or renewals—almost none."